WASHINGTON--The Republican National Committee on Thursday stepped up its assault on President Barack Obama in advance of his campaign formal kick off Saturday in Ohio and Virginia--hitting him on "high unemployment" in the U.S. as the RNC used a firm located in the Philippines to set up the "messaging" call.

The call featured RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Virginia GOP state party chair Pat Mullins and Ohio state party chair Bob Bennett. The conference call was part of the roll out of the new GOP slogan, "Hype and Blame," a deliberate play on Obama's 2008 "Hope and Change" slogan.

When I called in for the conference call, I asked where the operator I talked to was based and was told Manila. UPDATE The RNC used a Verizon conference calling system. END UPDATE

During the call, Priebus said Obama was "the president of hype and blame," who said "he was going to be different, he said he was going to be transparent. ...He blames everyone but the man in the mirror."

Mullins called Obama "a cold, calculating, Chicago political operator" who "is not good enough for Virginia" and who is "not good enough for America."

But giving a company in the Philippines business is good enough for the GOP campaign?

UPDATE As this conversation turns to outsourcing by U.S. companies, note that Obama in 2010 tapped then Verizon chairman Ivan Seidenberg to the White House export council.END UPDATE